How sharp is too sharp?

Anonimar · May 19, 2014

I'm having trouble knowing when I have oversharpened an image. I know this is going to be a subjective answer, but how do I know when my image is 'too sharp'?

Here is my sharpening process:
1. lightroom sharpening between 40-60 with masking so it's applied to mainly edges

2. High pass filter in photoshop, somewhere between 1.0-2.0

3. when exporting it from lightroom I leave output sharpening checked for screen, standard amount.

Does that seem like to much? I guess it's a picture by picture thing so I'll post my most recent one. What process do you guys use? It also seems like some sites add their own sharpening algorithm when resizing photos like tumblr and flickr, further adding confusion for me.

Also, I've never printed a photo before, I always hear that printing requires a different type/amount of sharpening? How do I sharpen a photo if I were to print it?

Here's the image:

BekahAura · May 30, 2014

It all depends on your subject, your purpose for the photo, and of course your personal preference. In the photo you posted I think you can get away with a ton of sharpening. Products, architecture, and texture photos usually look awesome with a lot of added sharpness. I might just zoom in to 100% to make sure the noise doesn't get too crazy as I'm sharpening. If I were photographing a person, on the other hand, I would probably not sharpen at all aside from maybe selectively sharpening the eyes. Sharpening a persons face will accentuate wrinkles, blemishes, and shadows.

You're right it really is subjective. You could be going for the wrinkly blemished look!

I would also suggest sharpening be your very last step in your process. I'm not sure how your workflow is so if exporting out of Lightroom is your final step awesome, ignore the next sentence lol. I export my photos out of lightroom with zero sharpening because when I retouch them in Photoshop afterwards, the tools (healing brushes & patch tool mostly) tend to perform horribly, leaving strange patterns all over the place. I prefer to use the sharpening tools in Photoshop as a finishing touch.

Also if you are getting your photos printed the amount you sharpen your images will depend on the material you're printing on. An oversharpened image might look great on canvas but it might be too much for a glossy metallic print. The only way to learn is to experiment... a lot!

Hope that helped in some small way =)

BekahAura · May 30, 2014

Just had an after thought! An easy way to do a printing test would be to create a duplicate copy of your image and draw a grid on top of it, dividing it into several sections. Number the sections and apply different amounts of sharpening to each area and be sure to take notes on all the adjustments you made. Then you can print out just 1 test cheat sheet of each material you print on instead of trying to keep track of a ton of test prints.